30 The Naturalist of Cutnbrae. 



She said that no tailor could have done it better. It 

 wanted just one additional touch. This was to lay 

 the seams down with a hot iron. This finishing 

 performance, which the young workman could not 

 very well have carried out on the open moor, he 

 was enabled to execute within the house. The 

 buttons required had been supplied from an old coat 

 of his master's, and the thread was his mistress's 

 own spinning and dyeing, so that this work of art 

 concentrated upon it the interest and respect of the 

 household at large. It may indeed inspire the youth- 

 ful members of many a family, in which strict economy 

 is necessary or desirable, to emulate so praiseworthy 

 an example of ingenuity and perseverance. 



David's labours, however, in the matter were not 

 yet at an end. He had the old coat to make up 

 afresh, which took him longer than making the new 

 one, and was a more troublesome piece of work, 

 because of the old seams and abrasions of some of 

 the parts. As already mentioned, he had become 

 skilful in mending his old clothes. He did not lay 

 the patch a long way over the hole and sew it down, 

 as was the custom of the housewives, but he cut the 

 piece out round the hole, as he had seen the tailors 

 do, making allowance for what would be taken up by 

 the seams. He found the habit of mending his 

 clothes for himself of much value in saving his 

 earnings, and he always bore in mind the old proverb 

 that a stitch in time saves nine. One point of thrift 

 he failed to acquire, and that was any taste for 

 knitting stockings. It was practised by all the 

 country farmers, and he was in fact allowed yarn 



